Process for making seamless panties



June 13, 1950 G. LACKS 2,511,720.

PROCESS FOR MAKING SEAMLESS PANTIES Filed March 15, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet1 6. I5 t lllllll/lll (moi-neg I a j /:4

3nnentor'. GEORGE LACKS June 13, 1950 I e. LACKS 2,511,720

PROCESS FOR MAKING SEAMLESS PANTIES Filed March 15, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet2 3nuentor:

GEORGE LAGKS (Ittomeg Patented June 13, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICEv 2,511,720 PROCESS FOR MAKING SliIAMLESS PANTIES George Lacks,Larchmont, N. Y. Application March 15, 1949, Serial No. 81,493

, Claims.

My invention relates to panties or to similar bifurcated or two-leggedgarments, for example, to pantie-girdles.

Objects of my invention are to make a pantie that has no sewed,overlapped or otherwise thickened seams, that is formed by interlockingmeshes throughout its extent, that will not cause a garment tightlysurrounding the pantie to Wrinkle or to show projections, and that willadapt itself to the shape of the wearers body without any inconvenientpressure along seam lines.

Other objects are to make a pantie that combines high stretchabilitywith strong resilient resistance, this resistance being stronger inthose directions in which a higher resistance is desirable in order tosupport the shape of the wearer's abdomen, and to make a pantie havingwales running substantially vertical at its leg, front and side portionsand having wales running from one leg to the other at its crotchportion.

Further objects are to make a pantie by a quick and economic method, toknit this pantie by partly circular, partly reciprocating operation ofone continuously operated knitting machine, and to'use, throughout theknitting operation, one continuous strand-or thread.

Still other objects and advantages will appear from the followingdescription of an exemplifying embodiment of my invention, from theappended claims and from the accompanying drawing in which: I

Fig. 1 shows a top view of a circle of needles, of a needle ring and ofan early stage of the pantie being made according to my invention, otherpartsof the knitting machine and of the thread being omitted.

Fig. 2 shows a cross-section taken along the line 2-2 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a cross-section similar to Fig. 2, butshowing the pantie ina more advanced stage of manufacture.

Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of the latter stage of the pantie, thesame being shown as it would appear if removed from the machine andstretched.

Fig. 5 shows a cross-section similar to Figs. 2 and 3, but representinga still more advanced stage of the manufacture.

Fig. 6 shows a side view of the pantie in a further stage after theknitting has been completed, the knitted body being removed from theknitting machine and stretched in almost fiat condition.

Fig. '7 shows another side view ofthis latter stage, seen from the rightside in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 shows a front view of the final stage of the pantie. I

Fig. 9 shows a bottom view of the pantie shown in Fig. 8.

needles are idle.

'line ll. 24-130 25 are idled,'one after the other, at interrial appearsin the figures, it is exaggerated for the sake of clearerrepresentation. Figs. 6to 9 arerepresented on a smaller scale than Figs.1 to 5.

In carrying out my invention, I use a number of circularly arrangedneedles, some of which are indicated by numerals 3 to 6 and 23 to 26.The number of needles may be larger than shown in the drawing. Forexample, there may be three hundred and fifty needles arranged at equalintervals. "Preferably these needles are incorporated. in a knittingmachine of well known structure allowing the choice between circular andreciprocating operation.

The'needles project upwardly from a ring 1 which is a part of theknitting machine, and are movable in verticalv direction. Needles can beidled by throwing the same out in well known manner.

During the first period of the manufacture, all needles are active, andthe machine, knits circularly over the entire circle of needles. Thisoperation continues until the resulting tubular knitted body -8 forms aleg of desired length. This leg portion begins at the line 9 and ends atthe line H. The latter line has just been knitted in the stage shown inFigs. 1 and 2.

Then the knitting continues reciprocatingly over a part of the circle ofneedles while the other Finally the latter needles are re-activated andcircular knitting is resumed.

The knitted body is not disengaged from the temporarily idled needleswhereby these needles hold the last meshes knitted on them until thesemeshesare engaged by the knitting thread when the needles arere-activated. U

' Preferably, not all temporarily idled needles are thrown out at thesame time. For example, the needles of the are from 3 to 23 are idledafter the stage shown in Figs. 1 and 2 has beenreached. During afollowing period of reciprocating operation, further needles from 4 to 5and from 24 to 25 are successively'idledwhereby the arc of idled needlesis step-wise widened, and

a gradually narrowing extension i2 (see Fig. 4) is niadewhichextendsfrom an arc of the leg Preferably, these needles 4 to 5 and valscomprising more than one reciprocation of the knitting machine wherebymore than one mesh spans from one of thoseneedles' to the next needle.These intervals are so measured that the free edges [3 of the narrowingbody portion I 2 have an. angular direction of suitable inclination.Anydesired uniform or varying angle or inclination can be obtained inthis manner.

After the portion [2 has reached the desired length and width,reciprocating knitting continues without further change in the number ofWherever the thickness of the knitted mate- 9 a'jctive'needles. thismanner, a further portion M of uniform width is knitted. When theportion I 4 has reached a certain length which depends on the desiredheight of the pantie, half of the knitted body is completed, theknitting havin proceeded up to line 15. Fig. 4 represents this stage ofthe knitted body in a shape into which the knitted product could beunfolded or stretched if the operation would be interrupted at thisstage. In fact, the body being knitted remains in the machine where itengages the needles and hangs down from the same about in the mannerillustrated by Fig. 3. This figure is a cross-section showing one halfof the body which is symmetric to the cut ofihalf, except that thehangingdownparts may form irregular folds.

During the reciprocating operation or, at,lea s.t, during the knittingof portion l4, selvedged edges are made by well known movements of thoseneedles which are at both ends of the active arc, '3

for example, by reciprocatingmovements of the needles 6 and 26. Theseselvedged edges are indicated by dotted lines [6.

From the stage shown in Fig. 3, the knitting proceeds in the describedmanner, but in reverse order, that is, .first a portion I] of uniformwidth is made which is an identical ,continuation of the portion M, thena gradually widening portion I8 identical to the narrowing portion I2 isknitted, and then a leg portion l9 identical to the leg 8, the operationbeing reciprocating during the knitting of I! and I8 and beingcircularduring the knitting of IS. While the portion I8 is knitted, theneedles from to 4 and from ,25 .to 24 are stepwise re-activated atintervals corresponding to their prior idling. At the startof theknitting of the second leg portion l9, .theneedles positioned from 3 to23 are re-activated. The mesh held .by any ,re-activated needle is.engaged by the thread which continue knitting when the needle isactivated.

Fig. 5 shows the knitted body at atime when the circular knitting hasbeen resumed and .a small zone of the second leg l9 has been knitted.This figure shows a out 01f half of the-knitted body which is symmetricto the other half, except that the hanging down parts may form irregularfolds.

Aftercompletion of the leg IS, the knitted body comprises twosymmetrically made portions, one of which is representedin Fig. 4. Butthe entire body can not be stretched as shown'in this figurebecausecertain lines ,of the symmetric portionsare connected wheremeshes positioned-on temporarily idled needles have been engaged.

Then the knitted body is taken out of theknitting ,machine. At thisstage, the body may be stretched and folded in the almost flat shapeshown in Figs. 6 and 7. The body comprises the .legs 8 and ,l.9.and anextension which comprises the tapering portions I2 and J8 and theuniformly wide portion I l-H bent along the line .15. This extensionconnects outer arcs of the .two legs. Inner arcs of the legs areimmediately connected to each other alongtheline 2|.

The tapering portions I2 and I8 are connected along the lines I3 whichmay be folded inwardly as shownin Figs. 6 and '7. This connection is ofstill higher stretchability than the other parts of the knitted body,because the meshes establishing the connection are spaced by intervalsas has been pointed out before. This facilitates the adaptation of,thepartsbordering *the line -2 Ptothe shapeof the wearers body, these 4parts forming a crotch 22 spanning from one leg to the other.

Then each of the two selvedged edges 16 of the portion I4 is connectedto that selvedged edge of the portion 131 which belongs to the same sideor edge of the extension. In this manner, the extension is transformedinto a pocket which, at its lower side, gradually turns into the 1egsand, at its upper side, is closed along the line l5.

This connection is preferably made on a looping machine. The line oflooping stitches made bythismachineis schematically indicated in Fig.

8by the gig-zag line 21.

Then the knitted body is out along the line l5 whereby the pocket iopened along a circularly coherent'rim, This rim may be then pro.- videdwith a hem 28. The final shape obtained in this manner is represented inFigs. 8 and 9. These figures show the pantie spread in a position readyfor being slipped on the wearers body. The crotch 22 comprises adjacentparts of the two legs andmay form folds 29. On the wearers body, thecrotch and the other parts of the pantie adapt themselves to the shapeof this body, cover the samesmoothly and exert a .resilient pressurewhich supports this shape. The wales run substantially in the samedirections as the surface shade lines.

The structure of ordinary knitting meshes is well known and is not shownin the drawing. Somewhatlarger dots or mesh openings appear, when theportions l2 and I8 are stretched, at those spots where, during theknitting, intervals have been made between successively idled andmesh-retaining needles. These spots are indicatedin-Figs. 8 and 9 by thedots of thelines3 l. The stretchability of the knitted body is favorablyincreased in the direction across these lines.

I desire it understood that my invention is not confined to theparticular embodiment shown and described, the same being merelyillustrative, and that my 'inventionmay be carried out in other wayswithout departing from the spirit of-my invention as it is obvious thatthe particular embodiment shown and described is only one of the manythat may be employed to attain the objects of my invention.

;Having described the nature ofmy invention, what 'I claim and desire toprotect by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of making pantiesprthelike twolegged garments, saidrnethodcomprising making aleg by circularly knitting over anumber of needlesarranged in a circle, then idlingneedles along an arc of said circle,continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles and e e ymak anext nsi n n in f m an arc of saidleg then. activating saididledneedles, continning knitting ,circularlyand thereby making theother leg, the start of said lattercircular operation engagingthe meshespositioned. on said temporarily idled needles whereby ,a narrowcrotch-connection is made between arcs of said legs, and said extensionconnects the remaining arcsof said legs over ,a considerably longerdistance, then connecting one half of each-edge of saidextension to theother half of the said edge and thereby transforming said extension intoa pocket'having aclosed line at that end which is far fromsaid legs,,andthencutting throughsaid line.

2. A method of making pantiesor,theliketwolegged garments, said methodcomprising making a leg byhcirc la ly knitting ver anumber of needlesarranged in a circle, then idling needles along an arc of said circle,continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles,increasing the arc of idled needles by idling successively furtherneedles at both sides from said first idled needles and thereby making agradually narrowing extension portion extending from an arc of said leg,then continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles andthereby making a further extension portion of uniform width, thenactivating successively said successively idled needles and therebymaking a gradually widening third extension portion, said third portionengaging the meshes positioned on said successively idled needles andthereby connecting said Widening portion with said narrowing extensionportion, then activating said first mentioned idled needles, continuingknitting circularly and thereby making the other leg, the start of saidlatter circular operation engaging the meshes positioned on said firstmentioned idled needles whereby a narrow crotch-connection is madebetween arcs of aid legs, and said extension connects other arcs of saidlegs over a considerably longer distance, then connecting one half ofeach edge of said uniformly Wide extension portion to the other half ofthe same edge and thereby transforming said extension into a pockethaving a closed line at that end which is far from said legs, and thencutting through said line.

3. A method of making panties or the like twolegged garments, saidmethod comprising making a leg by circularly knitting over a number ofneedles arranged in a circle, then idling needles along an arc of saidcircle, continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles,increasing the arc of idled needles by idling successively furtherneedles at both sides from said first idled needles and thereby making agradually narrowing extension portion extending from an arc of said leg,successive needles being idled at intervals comprising more than onereciprocation of the knitting, then contiuing knitting reciprocatinglyover the remaining needles and thereby making a further extensionportion of uniform width, then activating successively said successivelyidled needles at intervals corresponding to said first mentionedintervals and thereby making a gradually widening third extensionportion, said third portion engaging the meshes positioned on saidsuccessively idled needles and thereby connecting said widening portionwith said narrowing extension portion, then activating said firstmentioned idled needles, continuing knitting circularly and therebymaking the other leg, the start of said latter circular operationengaging the meshes positioned on said first mentioned idled needleswhereby a narrow crotchconnection is made between arcs of said legs, andsaid extension connects other arcs of said legs over a considerablylonger distance, then connecting one half of each edge of said uniformlywide extension portion to the other half of the same edge and therebytransforming said extension into a pocket having a closed line at thatend which is far from said legs, and then cutting through said line.

4. A method of making panties or the like twolegged garments, saidmethod comprising making a leg by circularly knitting over a number ofneedles arranged in a circle, then idling needles along an arc of saidcircle, continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles,increasing the arc of idled needles by idling successively furtherneedles at both sides from said first idled needles and thereby making agradually narrowing extension portion extending from an arc of said leg,then continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles andthereby making a further extension portion of uniform Width, makingselvedged edges during said latter reciprocating operation, thenactivating successively said successively idled needles and therebymaking a gradually Widening third extension portion, said third portionengaging the meshes positioned on said successively idled needles andthereby connecting said widening portion with said narrowing extensionportion, then activating said first mentioned idled needles, continuingknitting circularly and thereby making the other leg, the start of saidlatter circular operation engaging the meshes positioned on said firstmentioned idled needles whereby a narrow crotch-connection is madebetween arcs of said legs, and said extension connects other arcs ofsaid legs over a considerably longer distance, then connecting one halfof each edge of said uniformly wide extension portion to the other halfof the same edge by a looping operation engaging said selvedged edge andthereby transforming said extension into a pocket having a closed lineat that end which is far from said legs, and then cutting through saidline.

5. A method of making panties or the like twolegged garments, saidmethod comprising making a leg by circularly knitting over a number ofneedles arranged in a circle, then idling needles along an arc of saidcircle, continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles,increasing the arc of idled needles by idling successively furtherneedles at both sides from said first idled needles and thereby making agradually narrowing extension portion extending from an arc of said leg,then continuing knitting reciprocatingly over the remaining needles andthereby making a further extension portion of uniform width, thenactivating successively said successively idled needles and therebymaking a gradually widening third extension portion, said third portionengaging the meshes positioned on said successively idled needles andthereby connecting said wideningly knitted portion with said narrowingextension portion, then activating said first mentioned idled needles,continuing knitting circularly and thereby making the other leg, thestart of said latter circular operation engaging the meshes positionedon said first mentioned idled needles whereby a narrow crotch-connectionis made between arcs of said legs, and said extension connects otherarcs of said legs over a considerably longer distance, all said knittingsteps being made on the same knitting machine with one continuousthread, then connecting one half of each edge of said uniformly wideextension portion to the other half of the same edge and therebytransforming said extension into a pocket having a closed line at thatend which is far from said legs, and then cutting through said line.

GEORGE LACKS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 468,212 Simons Feb. 2, 18921,906,212 Lacks et al. Apr. 25, 1933

